Reign of Rain
by CassiustheCorrupterofSouls
Summary: Having come to terms with her troubled past, Mai realizes that she must leave Joey, for his sake, as well as her own.


"I'm sorry Joey, but this…this just can't work out between us," Mai said, as she turned to look out the window at the streaming rain. Watching it fall like it always fell. Misty and cold. A familiar prison shrouding itself around her solitary heart. Just as it had always done, so shall it be.

"Mai…"

Mai could hear the brokenness in his voice, see the desperation in his eyes. She looked away. She knew that she was hurting him, he whose only crime was showing her the light. (That wonderful light! How had she not seen it before?) And for that she was sorry. So sorry. But just as she would rather shove aside reality, whose cruelty led to this bitter moment, she knew there was no other way. Rationality told her that she couldn't live in a fantasy anymore. That just wasn't the way of the world. She knew that better than anyone.

All good things must come to an end.

At least they had been good. For that alone she was grateful. To have and to hold those few memories… They would be her light in the dark, the flame by which she would wander along that lonely road. The thought filled her with warmth.

But outside the rain thundered harder.

"Joey, I'm sorry. I should have never opened up to you like that during Duelist Kingdom, but I was so lost, I—"

He looked down for a moment, before returning his gaze back at her.

Her heart cried.

"It's alright," he began, reaching out for her hand. She let him take it. (Anything to feel his touch once more!) "I think…I think I get it. I'm just some kid in high school, and you've got places to be, right?" He feigned a smile, and his grip on her hand tightened.

"No, Joey…" she wavered, swallowing the lump back in her throat in order to find her voice. "It was wrong for me to come onto you like that. I'm much too old for you. What do you think the public will say when they hear that Mai Valentine took an underage duelist to bed with her during a duel monsters tournament? I realize now that I should never have done that. I should have never let this…thing continue between us. It was a mistake. And I'm sorry to have hurt you for it."

Joey threw her hand away. "Please! That's just what the old Mai would say! Always caring about what everyone else would think! Can't you see that doesn't matter anymore? I _love_ you."

"I know."

 _I love you too_ , she thought, but she couldn't say that. That confession would only make it hurt worse later.

"Well?"

A wry smile curved on Mai's lips. "Love doesn't change the world, Joey. Believe me, I know."

Joey snorted. "Oh, I know that _you know_! I just thought that I showed you something different… I thought I could change you, and then, for a second, I thought that I did. But I guess I was wrong, huh? You're still the same selfish person you always were!"

Her eyes fell downward. "I'm doing this _for_ you, Joey. I don't want to ruin your life."

"Well, you're doing a fine job with that right now!"

Mai stared out at the rain again, watching it fall and envelop everything with its cool, cool touch. "You're young. Perhaps I cannot make you understand. For you the world is a place ripe with endless opportunity. _Good_ opportunities, Joey. I want you to find them. Please, forget about me. And…move on with your life."

And with that, Mai rose from beside him and headed for the door.

"Mai!" Joey shouted after her, suddenly regretting what he said of her. "Don't go! We can—"

But Mai was already gone.

The door slammed shut behind her.

Mai ran into the rain, urging herself forward despite the cry in her heart screaming at her to turn back. But she wouldn't. If there was anything Mai Valentine was good at, it was abandoning her heart. In the cold. In the rain. She had been surprised to find out that it still beat for her even after all this time. That, no matter how hard she tore it, _it could still love_.

So Mai smiled as she ran through the rain. She smiled, even as the tears began to stream down her face, blending seamlessly with the rain that bore down on her. Perhaps everything wasn't so hopeless for her after all. Perhaps she could feel it all again.

 _Perhaps_ , she thought to herself, even as the loneliness bore down on her. But it would be different this time. This time, she would not let those demons trap her in that dark place. No, this time would be different. She would stand tall. And when they did come after her, as she knew they eventually would, she would smite them to dust.

She would reclaim her name.

And then maybe, just maybe, she would earn the chance to return again.


End file.
